No hard evidence yet to prove collusion among power plants, PCC says

The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has yet to uncover hard evidence that would support allegations of collusion or "cartelistic behavior" among power plants, Commissioner Johannes Bernabe said Friday.

Interviewed on Super Radyo dzBB, Bernabe said the "patterns" the PCC has seen so far are not enough to support a filing of a case.

"Meron tayong konting nakikita pero hindi siya sapat na nasu-support ng hard evidence para sabihin ng meron talaga [na collusion]," he said.

(We've been seeing signs but they aren't supported by hard evidence to prove that there is indeed collusion.)

Speculation on collusion among power plants surfaced after many areas in Luzon experienced rotational brownouts on June 1 and 2 due to thin power supply blamed on forced outages by different power plants.

Under the Philippine Competition Act, the PCC is mandated to promote fair market competition, prohibit anti-competitive behavior among businesses across sectors including the power sector, and advance consumer welfare in the process.

Bernabe said they are coordinating with the Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission in looking into allegations of collusion among power plants.

"Nakikipag-ugnayan ngayon kami sa DOE at ERC para makakuha ng datos at impormasyon para malaman natin kung ano ang nanyayari na itinuturing nilang sabwatan, na sabay-sabay nagsasara ang mga planta," he said.

(We are coordinating with the DOE and the ERC to get data and information to determine what's really happening with these power plants.)

Bernabe also said they have asked the DOE to look into the current "system" to determine if it is encouraging power plants to collude. "Yung ang ating inaayos sa ngayon [That's what we're addressing now]." —KBK, GMA News